FXPHD – VFX306: Advanced VFX The Desert Sandstorm

In this desert sandstorm course, Liam Whitehouse will take you through the latest release of Houdini FX 15 and Nuke X to learn how to create a photoreal high quality dust storm from beginning to end. The course includes lesson files to create your own high resolution fluid caches, as well as Houdini and Nuke files to follow along with all classes (premium membership only).

Liam Whitehouse is a VFX generalist with 15 years experience in 3D VFX software, specializing in FX simulations and Lighting photoreal imagery. Previously working at ILM and Animal Logic, he has been teaching fxphd courses as well as working as a lecturer at Griffith University Film School. His experience covers many aspects of 3D content creation, rendering technology, VR, and compositing tools.
course syllabus

CLASS 1
Previs and layout for starting a large scale high detail FX simulation in Houdini. How to layout the shot and block out the animation for the final high resolution simulation FX.
CLASS 2
Houdini Pyro FX emitter objects and noise settings .
CLASS 3
How to setup Houdini Pyro FX fluid properties to control the movement of fluids.
CLASS 4
How to add a noise wind effects to blow the dust storm fluid simulation towards the camera using Vops and Dops.
CLASS 5
How to layer up multiple cached simulations which have variations and how to Art Direct the dust storm shape, colour, contrast and movement, by laying out the 3d caches in your Houdini Scene.
CLASS 6
Mantra Render Engine and how to setup lighting in Houdini for the dust storm sequence.
CLASS 7
How to setup AOV render passes for the dust storm VFX, and all the render settings for draft and final renders in stereo ready for Nuke X.
CLASS 8
How to import and composite render passes created in Mantra in Nuke X . Lesson will cover colour grading, and multilayer AOV compositing.
CLASS 9
Director feedback and how to update the simulations created in the 1st pass review submission in Houdini and address review notes.
CLASS 10
Once the simulation updates are cached, how to update the lighting feedback notes for FX, and how to re-position the lights in Houdini and re-adjust the comp setup in Nuke X to address lighting adjustments in review notes.